5 Strategies for Lightning-Fast Caregiver Recruiting
Tools and strategies to invest in that help you expand your home care agency caregiver team quickly and efficiently
Between 2010 and 2020, the direct care workforce grew by almost 50%, and by 2029, the field is expected to add another 1.3 million jobs to meet the rapidly increasing demand for these workers. Add the attrition rate in the field, and employers can expect a total of 7.4 million open caregiver jobs by 2029.
Home health care agencies must prepare now to attract and retain in-home care workers, and a faster, more pleasant caregiver recruiting experience is where your work should begin. Implementing these automation strategies into your caregiver recruiting plan can help. Here’s how.
1. Automate everything you can
According to the 2019 Trendicators Job Seeker Survey Report, the three things job seekers value most in the application process are an easy and straightforward process, one that’s quick to complete, and an engaging experience.
When it comes to recruiting strategies, automation of the caregiver hiring process may be the number-one way to increase the speed of your caregiver recruiting efforts and satisfy these needs.
Automating candidate sourcing, resume screening, lead nurturing, candidate interviewing, and even new hire onboarding can improve the efficiency of your process and save your hiring team precious time.
Keep in mind that automation doesn’t mean removing the human connection from the hiring process (more on that later); in fact, the future of recruiting is a winning combination of tech and human power.
Well-executed recruiting automation campaigns engage job seekers between human touchpoints and move candidates through the funnel quickly. A faster, more seamless recruiting process can improve the candidate experience—and improve your chances of landing the great caregivers you want.
2. Invest in data collection
The more you know about your ideal candidates and how they interact with your hiring process, the more efficient it becomes.
The great part about candidate automation tools is that they gather basic demographic data about your candidates and where they are most engaged with your recruiting process—and where they’re most likely to drop out—so you can refine over time.
Knowing who your ideal hires are, what social media platforms they frequent, what kinds of content they consume, and the sites they visit makes it easier for you to carry out lead generation campaigns in the future.
Knowing where they’re most likely to drop out of your hiring process makes it easier to patch the leaky bucket and retain leads from the top of your funnel to the bottom.
3. Connect caregiver candidates with real people in your home care agency
Automating the hiring process may tempt you to cut as many human touch points as possible, but resist the urge—it could ultimately cost you time and candidates: 77% of candidates say they prefer human interaction in the hiring process.
According to the Trendicators report, job candidates believe it important to meet real people within the organization: 80% say it’s important to meet the hiring manager, 43% say it’s important to meet another person in the same role, and 39% say it’s important to meet future coworkers.
Ultimately, it’s humans that convey company culture and tone—not just digital tools, no matter how sophisticated they are—so it’s far more efficient to connect people when you want to ensure your new caregivers are the right additions to your team. After all, 46% of job seekers say company culture is important.
4. Train your staff on tech and protocols
Where you bring together humans and technology, make sure your team is adequately trained on how and when to use those tools.
For example, if you want hiring managers to review applications after your automation software has screened them, ensure your hiring managers know how the tool works. If you want current employees to participate in the interview process, make sure they have a strong understanding of the video platform you choose.
Your staff should also be trained on hiring protocols too. When colleagues interview prospective caregivers, what kind of questions should they ask? What should they not ask? Do you want hiring managers to score candidates? If so, how? Streamlining and standardizing the recruitment process will ensure fast, consistent results across the organization.
5. Streamline the way you onboard new employees
Hiring isn’t through until your new caregivers are trained on the role and are up and running on the job. When optimizing your hiring process for speed, don’t stop before you get to onboarding.
Paperwork and training are clunky and time-consuming, especially when credentials have to be verified and licenses updated, and even small mistakes can bring the process to a grinding halt.
Strategically using tech here can reduce human error and help you onboard qualified caregivers more quickly—and keep them for longer. A poor onboarding experience makes you 50% more likely to have a higher turnover rate.
Need help adding automation to your caregiver recruiting strategies?
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